Just like that, with one person invested 100 million yuan while someone else invested 200 million yuan, 10 billion yuan of cash appeared out of nowhere, shocking Lu Zhou.
Originally, Lu Zhou’s plan was to raise around 5 billion yuan. He would then find a bank, take out a 5 billion yuan loan, and issue a few billion in corporate bonds. In the end, he would have 12 billion or so.
But now, there was no need to issue any corporate bonds. He just had to take out a 2 billion dollar loan from a bank, and he would have collected all of the project funding.
Just like that, a company named East Asia Communications with a cash capital of more than 10 billion yuan and countless companies behind it was quietly established in Shanghai.
If they continued to keep a low profile, maybe no one would ever notice this company.
However, shortly after the establishment of the company, an earth-shattering event happened.
The Asia-Pacific submarine optical cable project was stagnated, causing the entire industry to fall into a downturn. A no-name company came out of nowhere and spent 5 billion yuan to acquire almost 80% of the domestic submarine optical cable companies.
Not only did this alarm the China Securities Regulatory Commission, but even the National Development and Reform Commission caught wind of this news.
However, because they had already mapped out the legal work, this did not impact the successful acquisition of the dozen or so companies by East Asia Communications.
In order to compete with the dominant foreign monopoly giants, it was necessary for the domestic industry to also form their own monopoly; the state was aware of this tactic.
Not to mention that the state also owned part of the shares in East Asia Communications.
This was because the communications industry was a sensitive field.
The emergence of East Asia Communications had stirred up the submarine cable market industry.
Japan’s NEC, Europe’s Alcatel-Lucent, and America’s SubCom all felt pressure from this move.
In fact, East Asia Energy was far behind them in terms of power and technology. They were industry pioneers who had been leading the way for more than half a century.
But who could tell what could happen in the future?
Also, China had a reputation for quickly dominating any industry they set their eyes on.
This was what made the competitors of East Asia Communications so worried…
…
East Asia Energy was buying out the domestic submarine optical cable business in a high-profile manner, aggressively entering the international market. On the other hand, the work on changing the national encryption algorithm and the promotion of the international encryption algorithm standards were also progressing at a steady rate, thanks to the support from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
However, the latter task was a rocky ship compared to the smooth sailing that was the former task.
Shortly after the U.S representative was absent from the Asia-Pacific Cyber Information Security Summit held in Beijing, the Pines Lab at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory published a research report, claiming that the QN2000 quantum encryption algorithm China was presenting at the summit might contain major security risks. They recommended the financial industry to use it with caution.
Although it was just a warning, it still caused quite a stir in the industry.
After all, the Pines Lab was a well-known laboratory, started by Alex Pines, the founder of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance technology.
The research scope of Pines Lab covered many fields such as quantum information science, quantum computing, chemistry, structural biology, and medicine. It was one of the leaders in multiple research areas; one of them being quantum encryption algorithms.
Therefore, people took this warning seriously.
“It seems like the Americans don’t want to secure their own safes.” Academician Gao Junwen put down the newspaper in his hand and crossed his legs as he said, “And not only are they leaving their own safes unsecured, they want other people’s safes to be unsecured as well.”
Ever since he returned from his Jinling trip, he finally understood the worries of his old friend Academician Xue Jinhui. He finally knew why the senior management was making these decisions.
If the computing power of a quantum computer could really reach more than 500 qubits…
If this kind of computing power were brought to the market without any preparation, it would seriously threaten the world’s financial and communications security. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that current encryption algorithms would be powerless when faced with a 500 qubit quantum computer.
“If they refuse, so what?” Academician Xue squinted his eyes and smiled. He casually took a sip of tea and said, “We have kindly reminded them. If they don’t appreciate us, then it’s not our fault.”
A stable international market environment was beneficial for the development of China. From China’s own interests and a moral standpoint, China hoped that the United States would adopt a more secure encryption algorithm.
However…
If the White House insisted on resisting, China had no obligation to beg them.
On the other hand, if the United States wanted to stay unsecured, then the Chinese side would have to prepare for the possible risks…
This was especially true for China’s Central bank.
“You’re correct, but this is obviously not just about encryption algorithms. They probably won’t let us put our submarine optical cable on their soil either.”
Academician Xue smiled at his old friend.
“The Pacific Ocean is huge. The East Coast is more than just the United States. If they don’t want to let our quantum optical cable on their soil, then we should give this opportunity to other countries.”
Academician Gao Junwen had a surprised look on his face.
“You mean… bypass the United States? But—”
Academician Xue smiled and said, “Then there’s no reason to install the cable in the first place?”
Academician Gao nodded.
Even though there were cooperation conflicts, China obviously didn’t want to give up the North American market.
Not to mention that the center of the Internet was in America. If this optical cable wasn’t connected to North America, it would be worthless. It was impossible to install a submarine optical fiber cable on the shorelines of small Central American and South American countries.
Academician Xue smiled and shook his head.
“You have to look at the big picture. Quantum computers are only at 500 qubits, what about the future? They’ll have to make a decision between security and pride, also…”
He leaned on the armrests and stood up.
Academician Xue walked over to the world map hanging on the office wall. He reached out and picked up a red pen, then drew a line along the trajectory of the Tropic of Cancer.
This line began from Shanghai, going straight to Central America, passed through the Panama Canal, crossed through the Atlantic Ocean, then through the Strait of Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and finally ran through the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca, back to East Asia.
Academician Gao looked at this line on the map and looked shocked.
He was even more shocked than when he was at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.
After Academician Xue put the pen back on the table, he spoke.
“This is…”
Academician Xue looked at his old friend and spoke.
“You’re shocked?”
Academician Gao nodded honestly.
“… Quite so.”
Academician Xue smiled and looked outside the window as he spoke with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
“Before this, I had a long conversation with Academician Lu. We agreed that whether it was the quantum encryption algorithm or a traditional encryption algorithm, any asymmetric encryption algorithm always has limitations. Encryption algorithms are only useful when we have a limited amount of computing power. But as information technology continues to develop and computing power continues to increase, especially after we enter the quantum age, encryption algorithms are not so useful anymore.”
“It is often more difficult to find a solvable problem than to solve the problem itself. What we need today is an NP problem, and tomorrow, we’ll need an n^2P problem. If things continue to develop this way, one day we will not be able to fill this gap.
“Unbreakable secure communication is the only solution. This is the only communication method that can meet the exponential increase in computing power and the needs of future communication.
“We’re not choosing the future, the future is choosing us.
“The attitude against change is not necessarily a bad thing for us.”
The Trans-Pacific submarine cable was only the beginning. Central America was just a launching point. East Asia Energy’s submarine optical cable was going to go in all directions of the world; this was China’s national information technology plan.
Once this blueprint came to life, there wouldn’t only be the Trans-Pacific Optical Cable Management Committee, but there would also be a Trans-Atlantic, Trans-Mediterranean, and Trans-Indian committees…
Or perhaps they would set up a global submarine optical cable management committee.
That was their final goal…
